What Are You Listening To? February 2023

[JazzyRandy]

José James - On & On (2023)
FLISTEN
José's jazzy tribute to Erykah Badu. I have one BIG HUGE complaint about this album. It needs to be longer, contain more songs. This interpretation of Badu's songs through a Jazzy prism is all steak and no filler.

This is the third tribute José has done. The first was Billie Holiday and the second was Bill Withers, and both are well worth a listen. I'm really pissed off that I'm going to NYC in a couple of weeks (where José lives) and I'll be there in a gap where he's not performing in the NYC area.

Trivia: One of my best friends had the nail put in the coffin of his marriage at a José James concert in an intimate local venue. And honestly, that should never happen, because ... just because.

Trivia2: José is paying homage to Alice Coltrane on this album cover and includes a few musical nods to her on this album.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

TH1RT3EN - A Magnificent Day For An Exorcism (2021)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Tommy Hooker - Texas Honky Tonk Favorites (2012)

Truth in advertising!

 

[Ojai Sam]

Various Artists - The Rough Guide To The Music Of Kenya (2004)

I've had a huge stack of these Rough Guide CD's hiding unheard in a corner of The Vault for a couple of years. Now that the pandemic is under control, it's time to travel!

 

[Unsomnambulist]

The Kundalini Genie - Half In, Half Out (2021)



I got so many Bandcamp emails detailing all the struggles they had getting their vinyl pressed.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Helen O'Connell - Chronogical 1947-1951 (Cracked comp. 2021)



Helen is really trig.

 

[Nickyboy]

Helen is really trig.

No spuddling in the studio from her!

 

[Nickyboy]

The Beatles- Everyday Chemistry.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Michel Beroff, Orchestre Philharmonique De Monte-Carlo (Georges Pretre, cond.) - Milhaud: Carnaval D'Aix / Suite Provençale / Suite Française (1984)

 

[JazzyRandy]

David Murray Octet - New Life (1987)

A Jazz party in a box.
Y'know how the "Jazz Age" is made to look all fun and hip and debaucherous via Fitzgerald and movies about the 1920s? All the David Murray Octet albums sound like that but with movies made to feature the music while being set in the 1980s. Each of these albums is a rollicking good Jazz time, and I can envision incredble scenes being set to this soundtrack.

New Life might be the best of an incredible run of album. Then again, it's impossible to choose a best when they're all so good.

 

[JazzyRandy]

David Murray - Ming's Samba (1989)

From an octet to a quartet, I'm sticking with the Murray train this morning. Ironically, the album is a quartet sequel to "Ming" an octet album.

 

[JazzyRandy]

David Murray Octet - Hope Scope (1987)

 

[axolotl]

Over the last few days, these went unposted, due to internet connection issues:

Lynn Baker Quartet ~ Azure Intention (2010)

Lynn Baker Quartet Azure Intention (OA2 22074)

Diego Barber ~ One Minute Later (2016)

One Minute Later, by Diego Barber

8 track album

diegobarber.bandcamp.com

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Bruce Springsteen - Giants Stadium, NJ August 22,1985

Moving on to the Born in the USA tour - I got into Bruce's music in Junior Year in high school early in 1985 so though I was hooked, not sure I had the money or resources to see him that summer. But man, wish I had - by all accounts a great tour playing huge venues like Giants Stadium

On a related note, tix went on sale for his return to the states from Europe this August so plopped down money to see Springsteen in Wrigley Field (so yes that will make four shows this year). My son is in college at Northwestern so we'll make it a family outing

 

[Ojai Sam]

Markus Becker & The Ma'alot Quintett - Beethoven: Piano & Winds (2020)



Whenever I'm tempted to hide myself behind a wall of legendary classical stylists from the past, an album like this by fresh young artists drags me smiling into the sunlight.

 

[axolotl]

Over the last few days, these went unposted, due to internet connection issues and general mindless spuddling:

This, here:

...and, this here:

Yelena Eckemoff Quintet ~ In the Shadow of a Cloud (2016) [Discs 1 & 2]

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (1983)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Joe Jackson - Night and Day (1982)

Just an 80s comfort food kind of day today

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

John Fogerty - Centerfield (1985)

 

[axolotl]

Depeche Mode ~ Violator (1990)



Don't judge me. I'm going through stuff.